This is one of my favorite movies for the message it passes. The environment takes you to a peaceful and joyful place while you learn how to be happy and let happiness grow in your own heart. I think the garden is a metaphor for happiness. While they take care of that garden and its flowers and plants and let it come alive, the happiness comes back to that mansion and it spreads to the people around. The uncle wasn't even home for his son who grew up sick and couldn't even see the sunlight. Both of them learn how to be happy and forgive and how to love and live life fully. Anyway, it's a movie that everybody should watch specially on those sad days. It warms your heart.

I recently read THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett and it was pretty obvious that the material doesn't lend itself to film very well. It's a slim novel almost entirely lacking in incident and action; rather, it's a mood piece, designed to bring to life a magical place and the characters who inhabit it. This 1993 adaptation tries hard to do justice to the book, but the results are mixed.I was pleased to see that although this was an American-made film, the entire cast are British. However, the actors are a mixed bag, and for a lot of the time they struggle with a sub-par script that makes the kids annoying. Yes, Mary was bratty in the book, but she never felt irritating like she does here. I didn't much care for Maggie Smith's poor Yorkshire accent either, although Walter Sparrow (ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES) is excellent as the gardener.Some parts of THE SECRET GARDEN are very good, like everything featuring the robin (I have the horrible suspicion that a modern version would simply CGI the bird) and the scenes that actually stick close to the book (and have the same dialogue in some cases). But in the effort to make the subject matter more cinematic, everything has to be bigger and grander, with random stone ruins within the garden. It was much smaller scale in the book, and some of the magic is lost. Also, they add in extraneous stuff like the stupid magic ritual, and Colin's father is NOTHING like he was in the book.

After losing her self-indulging parents in an earthquake, a bitter young girl named Mary Lennox is sent to live in England with her reclusive uncle.Some have said his film seems like a precursor or inspiration for Harry Potter. Along with "Troll", I can definitely see it. Of course, the two are wildly different, but there are some aspects of it being (British) children in a mystical environment. One cannot help but notice the appearance of Maggie Smith.While I was not as crazy about this movie as some people are, it definitely has charm and I can see it being really fun for kids.

I don't like this version there were to many things that didn't jam. Like the fits and tantrums that Collin throws at times it was just too much. And many times there were too much screaming form everybody. Although Maggie smith and Luara Crosley's performances were good and the only reason I give this a. 4 and not a 2 out of ten. Ther garden looked beautiful the key is found in some place and that was it the rest was awful. The best version for me is the one that came out in 1947. Don't waste your time with this one if you want the lovely experience of "the secret garden" go and see the 1947 version!!!! If you can get it!!!